Comtech’s ELEVATE Next-Gen VSAT Protects Critical Infrastructures

Comtech’s next-gen VSAT provides data and insights to mission-critical operations around the world, as it redefines resiliency to meet the intensifying demand for connectivity.

During natural disasters and unplanned outages, businesses and entire communities can be exposed to an extended loss of communications capabilities. Cellular networks can be overwhelmed due to critical infrastructure data being shared on the same network used by public and non-critical applications with direct access to the Internet.

Having secure and private networks over satellite can play a vital role in boosting reliability and enhanced security across critical infrastructure, such as oil and gas pipelines, and water and power supplies.

With enhanced resilience, new security capabilities, and software-defined core, Comtech ELEVATE networks are designed to predict events and take countermeasures before security threats could impact critical infrastructure. By moving from reactive to preventative capabilities, operations can improve dramatically with Comtech’s software defined VSAT systems.

A Proven Success
Korea’s government-run water resource management agency, Korea Water Resources Corp. (K-Water), is leveraging Comtech’s intelligent VSAT solution to stay ahead of the increasing unpredictability of the Geo-Political and Environmental challenges with a more resilient and redundant data network.

A factory acceptance test (FAT) has been completed by the Comtech team and Korea Water Resources Corp. executives in Montreal aligned with the MOU previously signed in Seoul. Very valuable feedback and suggestions were provided by the Water Resources ICT Management Team of the Operation Department.

“We are very happy to see that Comtech was open to our advice, based on our extensive experience in managing the Korea Water Critical Infrastructure. Together we have eliminated potentially weak points of the network architecture and managed to avoid dependence on terrestrial communication ground infrastructure. Comtech implemented in a very short time new smart and intelligent algorithms that greatly increase our network resilience, demonstrating their dedication to integrate feedback in order to solve specific customer needs,” Jeong-Hyun Kim, Water Resources ICT Management Team of the Operation Department of Korea Water Resources.

Comtech’s intelligent VSAT ground system covers more than 500 sites that collect and transmit data from sensors and nodes at Korea Water Resources’ stations throughout Korea, where roads and terrestrial infrastructure and connectivity are limited.

Comtech ELEVATE will help K-Water’s management system running this Critical Infrastructure, allowing the system to glean important insights that could lessen the impact of evolving changes and treats.

To avoid cyber-attacks, the network operates with specific Comtech developed algorithms over separate gateways. This capability permits any of the gateways to take over the full operation in case of malfunctioning of the other one.

Comtech ELEVATE Enabling New Levels of Resiliency

Designed from the ground up as a software-defined network architecture, Comtech’s ELEVATE next-generation VSAT platform provides extreme flexibility to sustain constant changes in user traffic demand.  As future-proof platform, customers can deploy Comtech ELEVATE as a GEO solution today and migrate it later to a LEO solution or a multi-orbit hybrid solution. Comtech’s next-gen VSAT is a multi-orbit platform, which isn’t customized for any band or orbit so it can be tailored to meet specific customer needs. That equates to short lead times, adaptability, and low-cost points.

Comtech has designed ELEVATE to operate either simultaneously or uniquely over LEO, MEO, and GEO satellite orbits with the same hardware platform. In fact, Comtech ELEVATE operates on scalable hubs, which enable customers to expand capacity as their business grows. Those hubs can be tailored to specific applications. Comtech ELEVATE can operate effectively on a single hub-based architecture or simultaneously on multiple hubs deployed and dispersed geographically.  

The ELEVATE next-gen VSAT platform features Comtech’s powerful link bonding and traffic balancing algorithms using spectrum multiplexing. In the event of an antenna outage or fiber interruption, the system can reconstruct point-to-point traffic over small antennas and discontinued bandwidth segments over multiple satellites and teleports.

Multi-Gbps links can be established using this approach as an immediate back up for fiber. Comtech ELEVATE enabled with Comtech’s Digital Gateway technology has the ability to run traffic over terrestrial, wireless or SATCOM links. At the same time, the next-gen platform can compress the data, optimize it, and accelerate and manage various delays over different links.

Comtech’s ability to provide unsurpassed multipath capabilities using VSAT enables more flexibility and resiliency in the face of outages and growing threats. Using the Digital Gateway interfaces, users can plug in a variety of different analog, UHF/VHF, and IP radios, as well as traditional IP-based hardware. For more information about Comtech’s ELEVATE VSAT platform, visit Comtech ELEVATE.